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14 Is Israel a slave?
    Is he born into slavery?
    Why has he become a captive?
15 The young lions have roared at him and yelled.
    They have made his land waste.
    His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
16     The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.
17 “Haven’t you brought this on yourself,
    in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God,[a] when he led you by the way?
18 Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor?
    Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?[b]
19 “Your own wickedness will correct you,
    and your backsliding will rebuke you.
Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,
    that you have forsaken Yahweh your God,
    and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:17 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
  2. 2:18 i.e., the Euphrates River

The Results of Israel’s Sin

14 “Why has Israel become a slave?
    Why has he been carried away as plunder?
15 Strong lions have roared against him,
    and the land has been destroyed.
The towns are now in ruins,
    and no one lives in them anymore.
16 Egyptians, marching from their cities of Memphis[a] and Tahpanhes,
    have destroyed Israel’s glory and power.
17 And you have brought this upon yourselves
    by rebelling against the Lord your God,
    even though he was leading you on the way!

18 “What have you gained by your alliances with Egypt
    and your covenants with Assyria?
What good to you are the streams of the Nile[b]
    or the waters of the Euphrates River?[c]
19 Your wickedness will bring its own punishment.
    Your turning from me will shame you.
You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is
    to abandon the Lord your God and not to fear him.
    I, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!

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Footnotes

  1. 2:16 Hebrew Noph.
  2. 2:18a Hebrew of Shihor, a branch of the Nile River.
  3. 2:18b Hebrew the river?